Sunday, 27 October 2024

non-endorsement (11. 933)

Following on from the decision of The Los Angeles Times not to support the Harris-Walz ticket for the US presidential election, ostensibly owing to the newspaper’s billionaire surgeon’s possible appointment as a health care reform tsar in a second Trump administration, Jeff Bezos has reportedly killed the notion of his media outlet taking any stance in the vote, despite the Washington Post’s rigorous reporting on Trump’s misdeeds and Trump’s exposing Bezos’ infidelity that led to the breakup of his marriage—again owing to government contracts that Amazon holds. Meanwhile Trump himself pretended to work as a fry-cook for a staged event (see previously) at a closed-to-the-public fast-food franchise—we guess to rebuke his opponent’s bona fides for having worked there as a teenager and show he can do the same—while McDonald’s has backed away from the stunt, maintaining they are “golden,” not Red or Blue. While political endorsements are not necessarily a hallmark of journalistic independence, this suppression certainly does speak to the integrity of management and interference with the editorial board and how the spoils system is subject to intimidation. PfRC is certainly backing Kamala.

synchronoptica

one year ago: artist Robert Martiensen (with synchronoptica), assorted links worth revisiting, a petroleum tapestry plus location-based podcasts

seven years ago: the osage orange plus more links to enjoy

eight years ago: the Vatican on last rites

nine years ago: The Sea Devil Raids America, even more links plus tensions in the South China Sea

ten years ago: charting languages, a dive from space plus matchbook collecting